Equinor's 100 MW Citrus Flatts battery starts merchant operations in ERCOT

East Point Energy, Equinor's wholly owned US storage developer, has completed construction and started operations at Citrus Flatts, a 100 MW / 200 MWh battery in Harlingen, Texas, Equinor announced on September 3, 2026. Equinor calls it the company's largest energy storage project in the US and its fifth battery facility put into commercial production in four years. Citrus Flatts is East Point's second operating project, after the 10 MW / 20 MWh Sunset Ridge facility in Frio County, which East Point announced as operational on October 23, 2025.

Both plants operate on a fully merchant basis in ERCOT, according to the release, which says close collaboration with Equinor's trading house Danske Commodities supports asset management and portfolio optimization, and that the two plants together can supply enough electricity to power around 30,000 homes for up to two hours. When Equinor approved the two projects on April 10, 2024, it said the projects were planned to be commercialized by Danske Commodities and were expected to deliver real base project returns "towards the higher end" of its 4–8% guided range for renewables, and gave target commercial operation dates of the second half of 2024 for Sunset Ridge and early 2026 for Citrus Flatts. Sunset Ridge arrived about a year behind that target and Citrus Flatts several months behind. The 2024 release said Citrus Flatts would connect to American Electric Power's transmission network; the September 3 release does not name the interconnecting utility.

Equinor acquired East Point in summer 2022, per the 2024 release. Beyond Texas, the company says construction is underway on a four-project, 80 MW / 160 MWh battery portfolio in Virginia's PJM market that is "on track" for commercial operation in early 2027. East Point CEO Andrew Foukal said in the release that Citrus Flatts "will generate millions in tax revenue to support local priorities." For scale, the US utility-scale battery fleet stood near 52 GW of nameplate capacity at mid-2026, per EIA figures reported in August.